Every design shop has their own
take on how to move a client’s website dreams and desires into a
realistic online presence. At Left Shore Designs, we’re believers in
keeping things simple.

As
a rule, we won’t try to go into an existing website and try to figure
out someone else’s "wiring job". It’s been our experience that, in most
cases (and there’s an exception to every rule), trying to muck through
someone else’s design coding will ultimately cost the client more money
than if a fresh, new site had been created. To this extent, here are the
“stem to stern” steps we will be following to create your website:

Step One: Gathering The Info

Your Internet presence should reflect the feel, function
and heart of what you’ve worked so hard to grow. But it’s your business,
not ours, and you’re going to know the ins and outs of it a lot better
than we will. What are your business goals and dreams? How, in your
mind, can the web be utilized to help you achieve those goals? Consider
the purpose of the site? Do you want to provide information, promote a
service or sell a product? What do you hope to accomplish by building
this web site (make money, share information, something else)? Is there
a specific group of people who the site will help you reach? What kind
of information will that target audience be looking for on your site?
These are the kinds of things we'll need to know from you before we can
proceed to step two - build and present a straightforward navigational
sketch.

Step Two: The Plan

Once
the information is garnered, it’s time to pull together a plan for your
web site. There’s an old carpenter’s term, “measure twice, cut once”.
Left Shore Designs will build and present a straightforward navigational
sketch – a rough site map if you will – that gives you a feel for
planned web page layout. There will also be a mood and graphical mock up
that represents your branding and calls to action. Of course, this
presentation is all tied directly to your espoused goals for your
website.

Step Three: Send the Plan to the Internet Art
Studio

The
Web Design Process at Left Shore Designs, Plymouth, MA. Sticking
with our carpentry analogy, building a website is a lot like building a
house – you can see charts, blueprints and artist’s renderings, but it’s
never the same as viewing the actual house sitting on the plot of land.
This is the point where the website itself is created. In this phase,
communication between both you and Left Shore Designs is crucial to
ensure that the final web site will match your needs and taste. You will
be able to view your project throughout the design and development
stages. This will allow you to express your likes and dislikes on the
site design.

Typically, we start by developing the home page, followed by a “shell”
for the interior pages. The shell serves as a template for the content
pages of your site and provides continuity throughout your entire
Internet presence. Once the shell has been created, Left Shore Designs
will take your content and distribute it throughout the site, in the
appropriate areas.

Step Four: Setting Your Website Free With Left Shore Designs

At
this point, if we’ve done our job right, the entire swirl of XHTML,
Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) coding and Java scripting should look like a
beautiful website to you (sorry, we haven’t figured out how to add the
“new car smell” to a website yet). Before we hand the finished files
over to you, Left Shore Designs tests the site code to assure that it
meets the current web development standards. This effort also assures
that any applicable “bells and whistles” (forms or other scripts) work
and and that there are no issues in cross-browser compatibility.

Once you give your final approval, it is time to deliver the site (web
design services fees start as low as $499). An FTP (File Transfer
Protocol) program is used to upload the website files to your server.
Left Shore Designs does not offer domain name registration or web
hosting services, but we can work with the hosting company of your
choice and even make recommendations in this area.

The Final Step: Promote It!

Just
because you have a website doesn’t mean the world knows that. While part
of the proper construction of any website should include the addition of
appropriate descriptive and key word “Meta tags”, that’s not enough to
get you recognized.

Many web designers fail in this area due a fundamental misunderstanding
of website promotion at its most basic level. However, Left Shore
Designs, in one form or another, has been riding the website promotion
wave since the beginning.
If you do nothing else, make sure your subscribe to the Search Site
Submission service (read
more and subscribe now).